HYDERABAD, Aug 24: Grocery, grain and seed merchants closed their shops on Thursday in protest against rising incidents of robbery and burglary during the last one month in the Market Tower area.

The Grain and Seed Merchant Group headed by its president Haroon Ahmed Memon gave the strike call on Wednesday at a protest demonstration.

Shops in grain, timber and grocery markets remained closed and shopkeepers condemned police inaction in recovering the looted cash and goods and inordinate delay in registering their FIRs. They also staged a protest demonstration in the Market Tower area, condemning the rising crime graph in the Market Tower area and indifferent attitude of the market and Sakhi Pir police.

They alleged that police did not respond to their calls whenever such incidents took place. They instead forced complainants to wait at the police stations for hours till the SHOs turned up.

They said that no elected representative had visited them in the last one and half month, although such matters were in their knowledge.

After the shopkeepers staged a protest rally in the morning and kept their shops closed, President Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) Masood Pervez and vice-president Azizuddin Arain arrived in the market and held talks with traders’ representatives, Haji Haroon Ahmed Jalaluddin Qureshi, MPA Abdul Rehman Rajput in the office of the Grain and Seed Merchant Group. The chamber president contacted local administration.

Subsequently, Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s MPA Naeem Ishtiaq, Taluka Nazim city Javed Jabbar, DPO Ali Ahmed Junejo, UC nazim Nasir Baloch, taluka police officers (TPOs) city and Phulelli and SHOs of four police stations also arrived there.

The chamber president said the attitude of police towards the business community was highly deplorable which could not be tolerated and added that it had been brought on record that police always avoided registering FIRs of such cases despite repeated attempts by traders.

He told the DPO that the strike would not have been observed, had police officers talked to the traders.

He complained that the market police had not registered an FIR against the robbery committed at N.S.Traders on Tuesday night despite directions from SP city Afzal Butt.

He said that police must redress grievances of businessmen.

MPA Abdul Rehman Rajput also criticised police for their failure in making recovery in any single case and not providing relief to traders.

He maintained that such incidents had been taking place despite assurances by police officers that no such incident would take place in future.

Haji Haroon Memon said that in case of any dacoity, the police lodged only NC (non-cognisable) offence report and asked complainant to visit police station again and again, but they did not registered FIR. The same practice was repeated on Tuesday when Nasir Ahmed of N.S.Traders had been deprived of Rs200,000.

He informed that Mr Nasir had approached the Market police for registration of an FIR, but the police continued to delay the report on one pretext or the other and it could not be lodged till Wednesday.

He said 15 incidents of robberies and 12 incidents of burglaries had been committed in shops and godowns located either within the jurisdiction of Sakhi Pir or Market police station.

He claimed that traders and shopkeepers had been deprived of Rs5 million in cash and kind so far. He said that police had been totally indifferent to our plight and officers were so arrogant that the FIR against the Tuesday’s incidents had not been lodged.

The TPOs and SHOs said there was shortage of police force but if the DPO ensured availability of more force, they would be posted in the area identified by traders.

Representatives of traders of iron market and grain and seed merchant group gave two separate maps to police officers where they said deployment had become essential. The DPO promised to ensure availability of force by Saturday and they would be deployed from 8am to 8pm.

Shopkeepers of iron market on Pakistan chowk also kept their business closed. They also burnt tyres on road.